Year-End Report – Planetary Society

I appreciate the opportunity to communicate with you via e-mail, and hope you appreciate getting this year-end report. There’s a lot happening at The Planetary Society, as well as in the broader society in which we all live. I am proud of September/October issue of The Planetary Report, especially its cover evoking the Pale Blue Dot and what it symbolizes about our place in the universe. December 20 is the fifth anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death, and we miss him.

We are facing a tough time – the economy is in recession, and the mail, which as you know is central to the Society’s membership services, is full of problems. Almost all non-profit organizations, except those dealing directly in relief for the disasters of 9-11, are feeling squeezed. We’re feeling it too, though we’re sure this is not a sign of decreased support for space exploration, but only a temporary set-back due to greater societal factors. In these times, we need the help and support of every member.

And so, I will make only one request in this letter: Please consider giving a gift membership in The Planetary Society this holiday season. You can easily do so on our web site at https://planetary.org/gift_membership.html

As far as our programs go – this has been a great year for the Society. Here are some highlights:

Pluto: We campaigned hard this year for a Pluto mission, even though NASA officially opposed it when it was cut from the President’s budget request last February. Along with colleagues in the science community, Society members were successful in persuading Congress to add money for Pluto in the 2002 budget. But the struggle is not over yet, and we will be watching the President’s 2003 budget submission to Congress in late January or early February.

Mars: With our partners at LEGO, we continued our Red Rover Goes to Mars project. The students from our first round of winners made a discovery of their own on Mars- thanks to the cooperation of Malin Space Science Systems, who built and operate the camera on Mars Global Surveyor. The students were allowed to control the MGS camera and found some mysterious boulders in a Martian sand dune. How the boulders were deposited there has yet to be explained.

The Society has long advocated a series of robotic landers and orbiters, leading to a Mars outpost that can prepare the way for humans to explore the Red Planet. We have begun a political and technical initiative called Mars Outposts and will soon make some exciting announcements about our involvement on international Mars missions.

Comets & Asteroids: We have just issued a call for new applications for our Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant program. These grants enable talented amateur astronomers and professionals in developing nations to make significant contributions to the study of near-Earth objects, such as comets and asteroids. Our previous grants have paid valuable dividends in scientific knowledge, and we look forward to seeing what this year’s selection can contribute.

SETI: The Society supports a wide range of new initiatives, including the world’s first and only dedicated optical SETI observatory. Telescope construction is underway at the Oak Ridge observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts, under the direction of Harvard professor Paul Horowitz. The Society continues as the lead sponsor of the world’s largest scientific experiment, SETI@home. Over three million people now participate in this project, hoping to discover the first extraterrestrial signal received on Earth.

Earth: We initiated cooperation with the NASA/SETI Institute Haughton Mars Project in the Canadian Arctic to advance research about Mars outposts and the use of Mars analogs on Earth to learn how to better explore the Red Planet. Expect an announcement early next year about a new Society initiative with this project.

We also participated with NASA in naming the Carl Sagan Center for Study of Life in the Cosmos, a brand new research facility at the Ames Research Center.

Finally, and best of all, we continue our Cosmos 1 project to fly the world’s first solar sail. Together with our partner, Cosmos Studios, we are conducting this historic, privately funded project and breaking new ground in space technology. We plan to launch sometime next spring.

For Our Members: We continue to develop new partnerships and add benefits for our members. I’d like to remind you about the opportunity for Planetary Society members to buy Meade telescopes at discount through the Discovery Stores, either in the “bricks and mortar” shops or on the Internet: http://planetary.org/html/member/DiscoveryStore.html The offer will only last for three more months, so take advantage of it soon.

We’ve also made arrangements for members to receive discounts at many planetariums across the US, and we hope to extend this program around the world. A list of participating institutions can be found at: http://planetary.org/html/member/planetariums.html

If you would like to learn more about everything I’ve discussed, — or give that gift membership — please visit us at our ever-expanding web site: http://planetary.org

Thank you for your support over the past year, and I look forward to working with you as we strive toward our goals of exploring the solar system and searching for extraterrestrial life.

Louis Friedman

Executive Director

P.S. Please feel free to forward this message to a friend. Thank you.